FBI Alerted To YouTube 'shooter' Post Last Year

16 February 2018, 04:53 | Antonio Miles

FBI Alerted To YouTube 'shooter' Post Last Year

Ben Bennight, the 36-year-old vlogger who'd uploaded the video, was alarmed enough that he brought the comment to YouTube's attention and also on September 24 sent a screenshot of it to the FBI's field office in his home state of Mississippi.

Bennight said he received a voicemail from FBI Special Agent Ryan Furr at the Miami field office at around 4:30PM on Wednesday, half an hour after the shooting incident began. "The comment simply said, 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter.' No other information was included in that comment which would indicate a time, location, or the true identity of the person who made the comment", said FBI Agent in Charge Robert Lasky.

It hasn't been confirmed if the YouTube comment was made from Nikolas. "I knew that I couldn't just ignore that", he said.

The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, allegedly gunned down students and staff with a rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland shortly before 3 p.m. after activating a fire alarm, sending people outside unaware of what was to come, officials said. They contacted him immediately, according to CNN.

Both the comment and YouTube account associated with it have been taken down.

The FBI said it had investigated the YouTube comment but had been unable to fully identify the person who posted it.

Noting that he doesn't know exactly what it takes for the FBI to investigate these sorts of tips, Bennight acknowledged that "had more time and effort been put into finding out who the username belongs to, . they may have been able to find out who this person was and put him on their radar".

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